Friday, October 17, 2014

Heroes Two

Heroes Two (Fang Shiyu Yu Hong Xiguan) (1974)

Runtime: Either 86 or 93 minutes (I saw this on the El Rey Network so I don't know for certain)

Directed by: Cheh Chang

Starring: Kuan Tai Chen, Sheng Fu, Hark-On Fung, Mu Chu, Yi Feng

From: Shaw Brothers

Yep, I finally saw another Shaw Brothers film; it was a long while since I've seen one... or an Asian film for that matter. It was a nice change of pace. I talk about it in the Letterboxd review below and I'll say that I'll return Sunday night.

Looking through Letterboxd I realized that I hadn't seen any Shaw Brothers films in 4 months time; I realized how ridiculous that was so I rectified that mistake and this happened to be on the El Rey Network so it worked out perfectly.

The story to this wasn't complex but that is OK. It's still an entertaining watch. Basically, rebels are feuding with an evil government. The government are A-holes who manipulated a poor sap named Fong Sai-yuk who happens to be a great fighter to take out fellow talented martial artist Hung Hei-gun as he was causing problems for them. Fong is told what he did and to atone for his mistake, he and some rebels try to break out Hung from captivity and they try to kick some ass.

It should be noted that the two lead characters are actually Chinese folk heroes, told in stories centuries old. The movie was one of the first to have legit Shaolin Kung-Fu. And, the action was done by the legendary Lar Kar Leung.

The movie is fun to watch as it has what you expect from the studio and the genre, so there's bloodshed, honor, redemption, some cool sets and beautiful rural scenery, evil villains and fights-oh, there are plenty of fights. There's an interesting quirk or two which I won't spoil but it is something that will guarantee I won't forget about this film.

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